Pancreas Transplant

The University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago's outstanding pancreas transplant program is dedicated to providing optimal healthcare to its patients.  Pancreas transplant is indicated when patients with type 1 diabetes develop complications affecting their eyesight and nerves or their sugar levels can not be properly controlled.  The University of Illinois Medical Center is one of two medical centers in Illinois that offers pancreas transplant alone for patients who have not yet reached kidney failure.

The pancreas transplant was introduced at the University in 1990.  In all major transplant centers, pancreas transplant has been performed with increasing frequency as a result of the improved results.  Pancreas transplant can be considered a lifesaving procedure for patients suffering from kidney failure and diabetes. 

Before transplantation, patients are evaluated by a board-certified diabetologist/endocrinologist and a group of diabetes educators in our American Diabetes Association certified Diabetes Center. The Diabetes Center has specialized programs that can be individualized to better assist patients in understanding and maintaining diabetes control until transplantation.

Types of Pancreas Transplantation

There are two types of pancreas transplant surgeries available to patients living with type I diabetes:

• Living-donor transplant
  

  A living-donor transplant is when a living person gives an organ to a person in need.  The donor can be blood-related or non-blood related.  Studies have shown that living donor transplantation can be more successful than deceased donor.  A living donor organ is transplanted immediately versus a deceased donor organ that has been out of the donor for a longer period of time.  Having a living donor also can drastically shorten the waiting time, allowing the recipient to be transplanted sooner. 

  At the Transplant Center, we also have several new techniques that allow people to be living donors who may not have been qualified in the past.  These methods include paired donation and transplantation of blood type incompatible donors.

  
  

• Deceased-donor transplant
  A deceased donor transplant is when a person is diagnosed with brain death and the immediate family has given consent for his/her organs to be donated for transplantation.  After the organs are retrieved from the donor and found to be a suitable match, it is transported to our Medical Center.